Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Opposites and Equals

Today I am going to tell a
little story and some thoughts in this post. The story may or may not have any
link to the thoughts like any other things in this life and universe. While each
is related and linked to each, they are also not. Just as a grain of sand can be
the entire cosmos or it can just be that – a grain of sand.

I will begin by quoting one of
my favorite Zen thoughts - A person may appear a fool but he may only be
guarding his wisdom carefully

Years ago, while touring one of
the greatest wildernesses of our planet I befriended briefly a noble soul; a
beautiful woman with great courage, humility, immense wisdom and a single
minded focus to heal the world. She is a rare combination of complete beauty
both within and without. Over the days as we exchanged ideas, brain-stormed on
enterprises to benefit the society together, our friendship blossomed, and then
progressed to what I felt was one of comfort zone and one day I expressed to her,
my wish to see her in person. By some quark of fate when we had met it was very
brief, so brief that I didn’t really remember meeting her; while she had seen
me in action for well over an hour. So after our regular exchanges over phones
and mails though I knew now how she looked I pined to meet her physically and I
just expressed it one day. There was very little chance of it happening quickly
or anytime soon. But it was an expression of my train of thoughts. And there
was nothing more at that moment that I wanted from her, besides just meeting
her in person.

Similarly I had met another beautiful woman more than two decades ago in a small confine and at
that time she was engaged in more ways than one to a friend of mine. This woman
too like all my woman friends, is beautiful, kind, generous and pure soul. She deserved
the finest and the best in life but life had other plans for her. Soon after we
met, she and my friend got estranged (certainly not because of me), and over
the years as we became good friends, she met and got married to a man who can
only be termed a real beast. She and I remained friends but with my travels and
climbs we rarely saw each other anymore. Her life turned into virtual hell,
everything around her collapsed, she was tormented physically and mentally
every moment. She at times spoke to me from far, exchanging mails too, telling
me what was happening, though never complaining. Just accepting her fate and
not willing to give up on her dreams, which now centered around her son, for
whom she wished a bright future, outside the influence of the evil father? I became
for her a guide, a friend, into whom she could confide. I still found her
lovely and charming while she believed that she had turned old and ugly due the
years of torture and mental agony. Then one day I asked her if she had ever
loved me; and she replied that she had always been in love with me.

As is told through almost all
great wisdoms in the world, and also from Newton’s law of motion no action will
happen without its reaction, or a reaction exists since there exists an action
somewhat opposing it. It is upon us to say which was the action and which the
reaction and which followed or preceded which one. Objectively if you wish to
feel the breeze flowing in, you will need to blow out. Without this very simple
act none of us would be alive as we breathe in and out every moment unconsciously.
To get something you have to lose something. Now ponder the following –

How will you seek if you don’t find

How will you ask if you don’t answer

How will you win if you don’t
surrender

How can you possess if you don’t
let go

How will you say if you don’t
speak silence

How will you rejoice if you don’t
suffer

How full will you love if you
don’t empty

How will you climb if you don’t
descend

We often say that where there’s
a will there’s a way. I would like to twist it and say ‘where there’s a willing
heart, there’s a way.’ And this willing heart has to be reciprocated by a
willing heart and only then great things would happen. Since nothing can exist
or happen in isolation to its pair.

I do not speak of a romancing
heart here but of a heart that romances all that it seeks and tries to imbibe.

Stories can and will go on, and if you are willing only then they will end or begin. They can be found wherever you look, wherever you open your heart and the mind of your soul, wherever there are memories, wherever lies a drop of tear or smile - story is born. Find it.

Go to the bottom by all means
my friends since I will eventually see you on top!

About Me

As a child, i had three wishes: to be a submariner (i did), to be a published author (i did, but won't rest till the Nobel and Booker rest on my mantle) and to be a mountaineer (still trying to fulfill this one).I am otherwise a globe trotting thrill seeker and have climbed the seven summits and skied to both the poles and then some.

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BLOG FOR CLIMBING AND IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS

There is a drama and beauty to be found in the world’s most hard to reach places that far exceed the intensity we experience in our normal everyday lives. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the fact that this pure happiness is usually only achieved after suffering some great hardships. In this mechanistic modern world, our primordial instincts for survival are often left untested, driving us to seek out those places where life is still hard.